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Churchill River

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tributary of Hudson Bay in Canada

Key facts

Etymology
Named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Native name
Missinipi ( Cree ) des nëdhë́ ( Chipewyan )
Country
Canada
Provinces
Saskatchewan Manitoba
Source
Churchill Lake
Location
Saskatchewan
Coordinates
56°6′22″N 108°14′46″W / 56.10611°N 108.24611°W / 56.10611; -108.24611
Elevation
412 m (1,352 ft)
Mouth
Hudson Bay
Length
1,609 km (1,000 mi)
Basin size
281,300 km (108,600 sq mi)
Average
1,200 m /s (42,000 cu ft/s)
Left
Whitefish River Reindeer River
Right
Beaver River Smoothstone River
Waterbodies
Lac Île-à-la-Crosse Pinehouse Lake Black Bear Island Lake Otter Lake Sokatisewin Lake Southern Indian Lake

via Wikipedia infobox

~4 min read

Encyclopedic overview

The Churchill River (French: Rivière Churchill) is a major river in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, Canada. From the head of the Churchill Lake it is 1,609 kilometres (1,000 mi) long. It was named after John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough and governor of the Hudson's Bay Company from 1685 to 1691. The Cree name for the river is Missinipi, meaning "big waters". The Denesuline name for the river is des nëdhë́, meaning "Great River".

The river is located entirely within the Canadian Shield. The drainage basin includes a number of lakes in Central-East Alberta which flow into a series of lakes in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The main tributary, Beaver River, joins at Lac Île-à-la-Crosse.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Churchill River” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

On the map

2 mapped locations